ATHENS: Greece's parliament on Wednesday was to approve a reform allowing workers to work 13-hour days under exceptional circumstances, drawing fire from unions and opposition parties.

The new law is expected to be passed by parliament, where the ruling conservatives have 156 MPs in the 300-seat chamber.

Unions have staged two general strikes against the reform this month, the latest of them on Tuesday.

The government insists that the 13-hour workday is optional, only affects the private sector, and can only be applied up to 37 days a year.

"It requires an employee's consent," Labour Minister Niki Kerameus told Skai TV on Tuesday.

The minister has said she has received and rejected collective agreement requests proposing even longer hours.

The reform is seen as targeted towards Greece's services sector, especially during the busy summer tourism season, enabling employers to avoid hiring additional staff.

But opposition parties and unions argue that workers will risk layoffs if they refuse longer hours.

"Our health, both mental and physical, and the balance between personal and professional life are goods that cannot be replaced with money," Stefanos Chatziliadis, a senior member of civil service union ADEDY, told AFP during a Tuesday protest in Thessaloniki.

"Making it legal to work from morning till night is not normal and cannot be tolerated by our society. It is truly barbaric. It is inhuman," he said.

The legal working day in Greece is eight hours, with the possibility of performing paid overtime.

According to Eurostat, Greeks work 39.8 hours a week on average compared to the EU average of 35.8 hours.

"This is a first step toward extending the working hours; in the private sector, you can't really refuse, they always find ways to impose what they want," said Maria, a 46-year-old construction company employee who declined to give a surname.

The current government has already legalized a six-day working week, especially during high demand in certain sectors including tourism.

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Greece to approve disputed 13-hour workday reform